I have done it before and I certainly wouldn’t want to do it on the smaller branches that you mention wanting to prune. This is the sort of thing that I would use for that operation:
With the bypass pruner you have the fixed backing stop to hold the branch so it cannot move away when the cutting blade moves in, unlike what happens when the reciprocating saw blade moves away from you in order to take another cutting stroke. For example, I helped a friend install a wooden fence. When he went to cut the top of the 4x4s at a slant at the correct height, even through the posts had been concreted into place a couple of weeks ago they wanted to vibrate back and forth instead of the blade moving back and forth on a stationary object. My brother and I held onto the posts with locked arms to stabilize them and they cut much more quickly.